Panthers blast Bays, clinch playoff berth

Saturday

Sep 30, 2017 at 12:27 AM

BY SCOTT CHURCHFor The Sault News

PICKFORD — The weather may have been a little chilly, but the Pickford Panther offense was red-hot on Friday night. The Panthers hammered the Brimley Bays 70-20 in their Bridge Alliance matchup, and earned their way into the postseason at the same time.

“We have a lot of speed on our team right now,” said Pickford coach Josh Rader. “We have a backfield with four guys that can make plays and everyone is working hard and getting carries.”

Brimley was simply overwhelmed defensively and had no answers for whoever came out of the Panther backfield with the ball.

“They are a good team,” Brimley coach Tom McKee said simply. “We were just out-manned tonight. They have a lot of good players and they are well coached.”

With the playoff berth locked up, the Panthers (6-0) will be focusing on other goals.

“We'd like to win the conference,” Rader said. “That hasn't been decided. And we'd like to host a playoff game or two. That's what we'll be focusing on now.”

Pickford scored five touchdowns in the first quarter, again showing that they can score from anywhere on the field. Six of the Panther scores in the contest came from 20 yards or more, including an 81-yard kickoff return from Joey Boik.

On the night, Matt Bush led all rushers with 147 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries. John Lamothe ran for 86 yards and two scores on only three attempts. Boik finished with 41 yards and a TD on three carries, and Lane Warner had 39 yards and a touchdown on two tries. Jimmy Storey also scored on his only rush of the game from seven yards out.

“Like I said before, we have a lot of speed in our backfield,” Rader said. “And none of them is getting a ton of carries. We have been scoring quickly on big plays and so we just aren't running enough plays to get everyone a lot of touches.”

To illustrate this point, Brimley ran 51 offensive plays in the loss, while Pickford snapped the ball just 27 times on offense.

In the passing game, Jonah Bailey completed all three of his attempts for 74 yards and two touchdowns. One went to Nick Edington for 39 yards, and the other was a 15-yard scoring strike to Warner.

For the Bays, Mason Harris, who was not expected to play, was the leading rusher with 91 yards and a touchdown on 12 tries. He was also responsible for the other Brimley score, hauling in a Hunter Lipponen screen pass and taking it 65 yards to the end zone.

Lamothe led the Panthers in tackles with seven, while Bush and Warner had six each.

Brimley, 3-3, will host Pellston this upcoming Friday, while Pickford will travel to Onaway to take on the Cardinals.

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